Table Of Content

AND THE 1937-1945 -2E* ^^^^T»i k - - _——^—j^ ML ( # Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from New METRO Metropolitan York Library Council - http://archive.org/details/picassowOOnash Picasso and the War Years 937-1 94-5 1 IraR ^b4 ^ » W wst- *% t 19 7-194- 3 n Steven A. Nash, Editor Willi •» Robert Rosenblum \\I> i ONTRIB1 riONS v.-i Brigitte Baer Michele Cone Michael FitzGerald Lydia Csato Gasman Gertje Utley THAMES AND HUDSDN FINE ARTS MUSEUMS DF SAN FRANCISCO Publishedon theoccasionoftheexhibition Picasso andthe War Years: 1937-1945 Fine Arts Museums ofSan Francisco California Palace ofthe Legion ofHonor 10October 1998-3January 1999 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 5February-26April 1999 Picassoandthe War Years: 1937-1945hasbeen organized by the Fine ArtsMuseumsofSan Francisco, in collaboration with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. We are grateful to the National EndowmentfortheArtsandtheNationalEndowmentfortheHumanities, Federalagencies,whosegrantshavemadethisexhibition possible.This exhibition issupportedbyan indemnityfromtheFederal Councilonthe Artsand Humanities. AllworksofPabloPicasso© 1998SuccessionPabloPicasso/ArtistsRights Society(ARS),NewYork. Copyright© 1998bytheFineArtsMuseumsofSanFrancisco All rights reserved. No part ofthis publication may be reproducedor transmitted inanyformorbyanymeans,includingphotocopy,recording, orany other information storage and retrieval system, withoutprior permissioninwritingfrom thepublisher. Firstpublished in the UnitedStatesofAmericainhardcoverin 1998by Thamesand Hudson Inc.,500 FifthAvenue, NewYork,NewYork 10110 FirstpublishedinGreatBritainin1998byThamesandHudsonLtd,London LibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumber98-60335 ISBN0-88401-095-3 British LibraryCataloguingin Publicationdata Acataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefrom the British Library Produced by the Publications Department ofthe Fine Arts Museums of SanFrancisco:AnnHeathKarlstrom,DirectorofPublicationsandGraphic Design; Karen Kevorkian, Editor. Frances Bowles and Sharon Vonasch, proofreaders. Bookand coverdesign by Michael Sumner. Typeset in Berthold BaskervilleatBurningBooks,SantaFe,NewMexico.Assistance by MelodySumnerCarnahan andJohn Inserra. Printedand boundin HongKong nm i 'IN tit: Pablo Picasso, StillLife with Skull, Leeks, andPitcher (detail), 14 March 1945, FineArts MuseumsofSan Francisco,cat.no.80. BACK COVER: Pablo Picasso, StudyforGuernica (HeadofaHorse),2 May 19 \luseo NationalCentradeArteReinaSofia, Madrid,cat.no. 4. PIEl i : Picassoin hisstudioon iheruedesGrands-Augustins, 1938. MllSei Picasso. Paiis. PicassoArchives. Photographbv PclerRose Pulham. v Tit'face 9 Acknowledgments 13 Picasso, War, and Art Sua \ A N vmi i 39 Picasso's Disasters of War: The Art of Blasphemy R.OBER1 Rosl Mil M 1 55 Death Falling from the Sky: Picasso's Wartime Texts l/iDl vCSATOG \^\l w eg From Guernica to The Charnel House: The Political Radicalization of the Artist Gertje R. Utley si Where Do They Come From- Those Superb Paintings and Horrid Women of "Picasso's War"? Brigitte Baer gg Circumventing Picasso: Jean Paulhan and His Artists Michele C. Cone 3 Reports from the Home Fronts: 1 1 Some Skirmishes over Picasso's Reputation Michael FitzGerald 122 Catalogue of Works 2D5 Chronology Steven a. N \mi 229 Notes 247 Selected Bibliography 251 Lenders to the Exhibition 253 Index Preface It is with special pride that we at the Fine Arts systematic organization in recent years of the Museums of San Francisco present the exhibition Picasso Archives at the Musee Picasso, Paris, and Picasso and the War Years: 1937-1945, documented its vast holdings of correspondence, photographs, by the publication ofthis book. Both are historical press clippings, and other pertinent documents. events ofthe first order. They represent the fulfill- Our organizational team is greatly indebted to ment of a longtime dream ofSteven Nash's, exhibi- the staff at the Musee Picasso for all the help they tion organizer and Associate Director and Chief provided in making these holdings accessible. Curator at the Fine Arts Museums, to assemble for Despite the fact that it contains some ofhis most the first time in this country an exhibition on this personally expressive and, ultimately, character- fascinating and under-studied period of Picasso's isitic work, Picasso's war period has not received work when art and history dramatically conjoined. attention from scholars and collectors commensu- From our internal perspective, the exhibition rate with its importance. Understandably, this owes advances furtherourmuseums' mission to embrace in part to the art's dark, grim, and challenging more fully in our collection and programs the qualities that have not been popularly accepted as most creative and intellectually challenging art of have other more colorful or pleasurable emotional the twentieth century. From the point ofview of aspects ofhis stylistic development. Also important scholarship and historical information, we expect is Picasso's having personally retained a significant the exhibition and book to make a significant and proportion of the work from this period, and its lasting contribution. passing after his death directly into the private col- Although many exhibitions and publications lections of his heirs, keeping sizable portions from have examined different aspects ofPicasso's prodi- general public awareness. Guernica, one ol the gious career, ours is the first in the United States landmark achievements ofthis period, is, ofcourse, to focus specifically on the period between the well known to anyone interested in Picasso and Spanish Civil War and the end of World War II, modern art, and certain other key works from this when Picasso's art intensely reflected the global era - e.g.. The Charnel House, variations of the holocaust and the strain of life under the German Weeping Woman, L'Aubadc, Night Fishing at Occupation of France. A similar exhibition took Antibes, and Man with a Lamb have also attained place approximately ten years ago at the Ludwig the status of icons. But main other strong and Museum in Cologne, but ours benefits from the evocative works from the time remain little know n extensive new research on this period of Picasso's and underappreciated. It is often in these less life and work that is made possible largely by the acclaimed paintings, drawings, sculptures, and prints that we find the most telling messages of Picasso's innerreaction to cataclysmic world events and their effects on his personal world. These are messages of timely relevance, given a general renewed interest in the history of World War II and Nazi cultural policies, augmented by the efforts of contemporary artists to address political and social realities. Through the works in this exhibition and book we see a remarkable record ofthe interaction ofart with historical events. No other artist ofthe twentieth century left so sustained a visual account ofthe devastating effect of war on life and the human spirit. For a comparable achievement, one must look back to the work ofPicasso's revered country- man Francisco de Goya, whose accounts ofatroci- ties in the Napoleonic wars in Spain almost 150 years earlier have much in common with Picasso's modern updates of the language of loss, struggle, sorrow, and commemoration. We hope through our project to promote greater public understand- ing and appreciation ofwhat Picasso achieved. In the accompanyingacknowledgments Steven Nash has thanked the many individuals who helped in one way or another with the enormous logistical and research effort that lies behind this project. I add my own voice ofthanks to his and also single out for special commendation the out- standing organizational work that Steven Nash himselfhas done. We are particularly grateful to our colleagues at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, especially Robert Rosenblum, Thomas Krens, and Lisa Dennison, for their help and support, to the many lenders to the exhibition, and to those sponsors who helped make it all possible. Thank you. Harry S. Parker III DirectorofMuseums Fine Arts Museums ofSan Francisco